Chapter 14 - THE WOMAN WHO STOPPED LYING
Vivian requested that the meeting happen without Grant.
Elaine agreed to attend with Charles and Anna. Vivian brought her own attorney.
Nobody pretended it was a family visit.
Vivian sat at the far end of the conference table with a folder in front of her.
She looked at Anna first.
“I sent the letter.”
Anna said nothing.
“I intercepted the early calls. Some mail came through the house. Later, through Dad’s office.”
Charles kept his hands flat on the table.
Vivian opened the folder.
“I had access because he trusted me.”
The sentence was simple.
It was also the cruelest thing she had said all morning.
“Why now?” Anna asked.
Vivian glanced at her lawyer, then back.
“Because Grant has started saying I did all of it.”
“That’s why you’re telling the truth?”
“It’s part of why.”
For once, she had chosen an ugly answer over a polished one.
Anna leaned back.
Vivian continued.
The first theft had covered debts from a failed business venture. She had used the scholarship fund because the money was available and because she believed she could replace it before anyone noticed.
Anna had noticed.
So Vivian had redirected the blame.
Later, Grant discovered how the old records could be used. Payments multiplied. Explanations grew more elaborate.
Vivian had gone along.
Sometimes she benefited.
Sometimes she signed because stopping would expose the beginning.
No one in the room offered that as an excuse.
“What about my apartment?” Anna asked.
Vivian’s face changed.
“I authorized someone to look for financial records.”
“You sent a man into my home.”
“Yes.”
“And the clearing company?”
“I signed the form.”
“You were going to erase what was left.”
Vivian began to cry.
Anna let her.
There had been too many years when Anna was the only one crying.
Finally Vivian said, “I didn’t know you were so sick.”
“You knew when Lucy stood in front of you.”
Vivian covered her mouth.
Anna’s voice stayed steady.
“She told you I was in the hospital. You looked at her shoes.”
Charles closed his eyes.
That was the moment he would remember when people later called the situation complicated.
Some parts were.
That part wasn’t.
Vivian signed a statement prepared with her attorney. The supporting files would go to the auditors and the investigators handling the complaint.
Then she looked at her father.
“Do you still love me?”
Charles took a long breath.
“Yes.”
Hope crossed her face.
He continued.
“And I will not help you hide.”
When the meeting ended, Vivian tried to speak privately to Anna.
“Could you ever forgive me?”
Anna stood.
“I don’t know.”
It was the most honest gift she had left to offer.
Outside, Charles’s phone rang.
The company secretary.
The board meeting was starting in one hour.
May you like
Grant had arrived early.
And he was still planning to remove Charles.
